Nomura Holdings, Inc., a principal member of the Nomura Group, announced this Friday that it has secured a securities business license in China for its majority-owned securities joint venture in China – Nomura Orient International Securities.

The securities business licence was granted by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC). The licence will allow the entity to operate brokerage, investment consulting, proprietary trading, and asset management businesses.

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“Through the new business, Nomura aims to leverage its global expertise to provide clients with diverse investment products and services for the Chinese market, with the ultimate goal of growing the business into a full-fledged brokerage that will form a core part of the firm’s strategy in Asia ex-Japan,” the company said in the statement released today.

Nomura Orient International Securities is a joint venture between Nomura and JPMorgan. According to the statement, the company was officially established in August of this year, however, the two firms received approval for the venture back in March.

As Finance Magnates reported, the joint venture is based in Shanghai, China, and Nomura holds a 51 per cent stake, while Orient International (Holding) Co. Ltd., a state-owned enterprise based in Shanghai, holds 24.9 per cent and Shanghai Huangpu Investment Holding (Group) Co., Ltd. holds the remainder.

Nomura was able to set up the venture due to a relaxing in Chinese law. Specifically, in April of 2018, the Chinese regulator issued rules to raise the ceiling on foreign ownership of China-based securities firms to 51 per cent. Previously, the limit was 49 per cent.

Towards the end of last year in November, the CSRC gave the first approval for a foreign firm to take advantage of this, which was granted to Swiss firm UBS Group AG which raised its shareholding in UBS Securities Co. Ltd. to 51 per cent.